t-test
A Test for Significant Difference
Starr Clyde L. Sebial
One-Sample t-test
• Intelligence tests are constructed such that the
average score among adults is 100 points.
• In this example, we take a small sample of graduate
students at Saint Columban (N = 6), and try to
determine if the average of intelligence scores for all
students is higher than 100.
• In simple terms, are the graduate school
students smarter than average?
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One-Sample t-test
• The scores obtained from the 6 students were as
follows:
X
Person 1: 110
Person 2: 118
Person 3: 110
Person 4: 122
Person 5: 110
Person 6: 150
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One-Sample t-test
Research Question
On average, do the population of graduate students at
Saint Columban have higher than average
intelligence scores (IQ 100)?
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One-Sample t-test
• This is a 1-tailed test, because we are asking if the
population mean is ‘greater’ than 100.
• If we had only asked whether the intelligence of
students were ‘different’ from average (either higher
or lower) then the test would be 2-tailed.
• In the appendixes of your textbook, look at the table
titled, ‘critical values of the t-distribution’.
• Under a 1-tailed test with an Alfa-level of and
degrees of freedom df = 5, and you should find a
critical value (C.V.) of t = 2.02.
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One-Sample t-test
6 | ANOVA
One-Sample t-test
120 100
t 3.152
2
sx 201.333
n 1 6 1
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One-Sample t-test
• This is a 1-tailed test, because we are asking if the
population mean is ‘greater’ than 100.
• If we had only asked whether the intelligence of
students were ‘different’ from average (either higher
or lower) then the test would be 2-tailed.
• Under a 1-tailed test with an Alfa-level of and
degrees of freedom df = 5, and you should find a
critical value (C.V.) of t = 2.02.
9 | ANOVA
One-Sample t-test
Is our computed t = 3.152
greater than the C.V. = 2.02?
Yes!
Thus we reject the null hypothesis
and live happily ever after.
Right?
What does this really mean?
10 | ANOVA
One-Sample t-test
• SPSS calculates an exact probability value associated
with the ‘t.’
• As a consequence, when writing the results we
simply substitute this exact value, rather than using
the less precise ‘p < .05’ (per our hand-calculations
above).
• Notice that SPSS calls p-values ‘Sig.,’ which stands for
significance.
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One-Sample t-test
• NOTE: SPSS only gives us the
p-value for a 2-tailed t-test.
• In order to convert this value into a one-tailed test,
per our example, we need to divide this ‘sig (2-
tailed)’ value in half
(e.g., .033/2=.02, rounded).
• Why?
• In short, one-tailed t-tests are twice as powerful,
because we simply assume that the results cannot be
different in the direction opposite to our
expectations.
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One-Sample t-test
The mean intelligence score of
graduate students at Saint Columban
(M = 120) was significantly higher
than the standard intelligence score
(M = 100), t(5) = 3.15, p = .02 (one-
tailed).
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One-Sample t-test
• According to tradition in psychology,
p-values which are lower than .05 are
significant, meaning that we will likely
still find differences if we collected
another sample of participants.
• When using SPSS we are no longer
confronted with a ‘critical value.’ Instead,
we can simply observe that the p-value is
less than ‘.05.’
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The Paired t-Test
(A.K.A. Dependent Samples t-Test,
or t-Test for Correlated Groups)
• In many research designs, it is helpful to
measure the same people more than
once.
• Pretest and posttest of students
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The Paired t-Test
1 2
t , df = n-1
S S 2rx1x2 S x1 S x2
2
x1
2
x2
n 1
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The Paired t-Test
• Unlike the independent samples t-test, the
paired t-test has separate entries for 2
dependent variables, rather than an
independent and dependent:
– DependentVariable1 = pretest scores
– DependentVariable2 = posttest scores
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APA Format
Independent-Samples
t-test
• Evaluates the difference between the
means of two independent groups.
• Also called “Between Groups T test”
• Ho: 1= 2
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Independent-Samples t-test
X1 X 2
t
2
2
( n1 1) s1 ( n 2 1) s 2 n1 n 2
n1 n2 2 n1n2
2
(n1 1) s1 (n2 1) s2 Pooled variance of the two groups
2
n1 n2 2
n1 n2 = common standard deviation of two groups
nn
1 2
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